Scot Loeffler, the Florida Gators' recently hired quarterback coach, didn't go so far as to execute "The Pinky Pledge," but he promised no intentions of fixing what is not broken. ...more

February 9, 2009

Some call her approach too idealistic and unrealistic. But Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's first female presiding bishop, remains firm in her belief that "all are welcome at the table" of her denomination, an opinion not all Anglicans share. ...more

November 5, 2008

Retired Marine Col. John Ripley, who was credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War, died at home at age 69, friends and relatives said Sunday. ...more

November 2, 2008

System: Nintendo DS Publisher: Square Enix ...more

August 8, 2008

Our longer days are here and more of the outdoors we will see. Being that we live in Florida, many of us are in some regard "outdoors" people. The sunshine is part of our lives no matter how we want to see it. With medical awareness at a high, it is important to know what we need to do to protect ourselves. The sun is a wonderful thing but as with anything moderation and a little self-protection is key. ...more

July 10, 2008

SEBRING –– As far as rainfall goes, the last two weeks were rather wet for Avon Park and downright soggy for Lake Placid. So soggy, in fact, that Highlands County Lakes Association Secretary John Ruggiero said he saw the lake, Lake Placid, rise about 10 inches from two weeks ago, which is about what the Archbold Biological Station's rain gauge recorded for that time period, according to the National Weather Service. "If we could even get 5 or 6 (inches) a week, that would be a wonderful thing for the lakes in our county," Ruggiero said. For those who long for the days when they could put a boat out on Lake Jackson, "this is just a spit in the bucket," association vice president Dave McCadam said. He added that the rain patterns over the past two weeks were not that far from normal for the northern part of the county. ...more

July 6, 2008

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it can be painful when we see things our country should have done and didn't when it had the chance. A perfect example of this followed the collapse of the Soviet Union as democracy swept the world back in the early 1990s. A New York University professor recently discussed with PBS's Charley Rose about the West's, as in Western Europe and America's, missed opportunity when communism fell in much of the world. Instead of using those heady times to make great in-roads in the world as the only super power, we instead looked inward and missed a huge opportunity. Now that's all lost. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, millions of people caught up in their first whiff of freedom sought what we had to offer. Everything seemed right and the rest of the world looked to us for leadership and guidance. Instead of stepping up and taking this opportunity, the West looked inward instead of outward. We could have affected so much change that benefited the world, and our country, but we missed the opportunity. ...more

June 16, 2008

Chutzpah is such a wonderful thing, especially if you are a politician, when your plate overflows with the stuff. ...more

May 21, 2008

Believe me, teaching usually is no picnic. It can be just a job many days and like any other career, it can be tough to make yourself get up and go to work. Some days you just want to get through the day and go home. But, I can remember when, for me, it was fun. ...more

February 15, 2008

The year was 1930, and if ever there was a need for diversion, it was then. Money was scarce, the nation was gripped by the Great Depression and people were looking for ways to turn dark clouds into smiles. ...more

November 6, 2007